Let’s agree I couldn’t really pay attention to them till I was three.

That being the case, between going to the theater, television, VHS and Beta rentals,
DVD purchases and rentals, Netflix, Hulu Plus and network websites …
how many movies do you figure I’ve seen since September 2, 1954,
my third birthday?
In all that time, I have seen four performances which immediately come to mind
as being perfect.

The first: Gregory Peck in “To Kill a Mockingbird“.

The second: Robert Duvall in “The Apostle“.

Prays like Jimmy Swaggart, moves like Jagger

The third: Bruce Dern in “Nebraska“.

And, after having watched it for the third time in this past week since I bought the DVD and downloaded the digital version to my laptop …
Jennifer Lawrence in “Silver Linings Playbook”.

Every word spoken, every look in their eyes, every nuance of every motion, the way they stood or walked or sat or sneezed or smiled or smirked, their timing and rhythm, even the way they would take each and every breath transformed them into someone you came to know. Someone who reached out to you and into you and left an indelible mark on how you would forever look at that character and who they represented.

I did some ensemble theater in college, some amateur Summer Stock community theater, did a short film in college, so I’m no Pacino or DeNiro. I read some Stanislavski, but I sure ain’t no Lee Strasburg.
I’m just some guy whose met a whole bunch of people over the years and forget most of them.
I will never forget Atticus Finch or The Apostle E. F. or Woody Grant or Tiffany Maxwell any more than I could ever forget Marty and Brad and Greg and Jimmy and Bryan and Marcie and Mama Wags – people dating back over forty and even over fifty years in my life. Even if we’ve lost contact.
And I’ve forgotten most of the people I worked with for fifteen out of the past eighteen years.

This isn’t a movie blog. I don’t even have a “Movies” page to put this on as much as I love movies. Even some of the cheesiest of them. I mean, come on … there’s a certain tackiness to “Showgirls” that transcends the T&A and the classic “nipples” moment that makes it a guilty pleasure worthy of cinematic immortality.
Check out the tags I have on this post.

I have made the only statements I have to share on this post.
The rest I am opening up to all the folks it’s addressed to.
Some of you know who you are already, some of you haven’t even gotten here yet. Maybe those tags got you here somehow. Or maybe a referral or a mutual blogger we follow or fate or blind fucking luck.
Whatever.

So you know who you are, and you know what I’m thinking and I have one question for you:

is there something recognizable and either comfortably or uncomfortably familiar about Tiffany Maxwell?

And… just to really rub it in… Jennifer’s character is a dancer. The story actually is centered around a dance competition that Tiffany wants to enter, choosing Bradley Cooper’s character Patty (who has been diagnosed as Bi-Polar and just got out of six months of hospitalization).
I guess they went through some extensive training for the dancing scenes, not surprising consider our girl’s particular problem with walking up a short flight of stairs or exiting a stretch limo.
There are two questions I’d really love to ask Jennifer Lawrence;
a) You think your parents would mind if Liz and I adopted you?
and
b) when in preparation for the filming – either the read-thru’s or character development or improvs or rehearsals, in her talks with the writer./director David Russell, did the subject of BPD ever come up? Was it just a few random behaviors that were packaged together to flesh out a kookie character? Did the author of the novel give any extra insight?
It is truly a performance that ranks up there with the best of Peck and Duvall and Dern, legendary pros who always brought all their tools with them..
and this girl was twenty-one when she played the part.

I asked my boyfriend to day if he’s seen it but he never heard of it. Would it be a trigger for me to watch, do you think? He said he’d buy it and we can watch it, but I’m wondering if maybe I should watch it alone.

“Playbook”:
It is nothing less than inspiring.
Not only did I buy the DVD, but I downloaded the digital copy onto my laptop.
My cinematic Dalai Lama is John Cassavetes who always made films that actually introduced you to people rather than just create characters. His work was a bit dark, a bit more cynical, but he loved people in spite of the foibles he picked apart.
David O. Russell and Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro have created a masterpiece, nothing short of the experience of meeting fascinating, multi-faceted personalities whose lives SOMEone we know is living, not just clichéd laundry lists of character flaws.
One of my “go to” movies.
Another one that nobody’s ever heard of but has affected me deeply: “Grand Canyon”, directed by Lawrence Kasdan.
Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Steve Martin, Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard …

I looked into it a bit further. I already told my boyfriend nevermind. I don’t think I should watch it with anyone; especially not with him. It worries me that I’d be triggered and get really emotional, and sadly would end up in a total fit against him. I’d rather play it safe, but I really want to see it now. REALLY BAD. And I don’t even like movies.

Might not be a bad idea to watch it on your own.
There is one aspect of BPD that I think comes to the forefront of the story and the interplay between the characters if you make the connection.
But overall it’s a triumphant story for both the lead characters and their relationship.
Let me know what you think / feel, ’cause I don’t think I’m off about the Tiffany character.

And there’s a persistent aura of one of the “signatures” that takes center stage every now and then.
Last I saw, it’s one of the bargains these days at WalMart, $9.00 or so.
Likely cheaper than a co-pay and you can repeat it whenever you need.

I’m trying to avoid the dreaded, unholy “Spoiler Alerts”, but that isn’t really the case here:
Tiffany is roughly twenty-three or so, lost her husband in a tragic, senseless accident. They really don’t give her enough of a backstory to confirm THAT was the initial trigger. Maybe, maybe not.
The only shortcoming of the film, for me, was not knowing more of her history.
She is passionate about her dancing. Liz said she can’t remember much of the movie where Tiffany was actually happy, and I sort of agree, but she looked so much at peace when her emotions were being vented/expressed through dance. You could even see it in her eyes.
When Patty (her boyfriend even before they realized he was her boyfriend) agrees to be her partner in a dance competition she wants to enter KNOWING she has little of a chance of winning, they set up a schedule for practicing, Patty has to call off one of the sessions for family reasons.
Tiffany has a hard time handling it. It goes beyond “you made a promise” or the thought of Patty’s commitment to her.
I just started thinking… “Abandonment”.
Hell… her husband died, and her dance partner seems to be backing out of their dancing together and it all comes down to abandonment.
Not necessarily, but it doesn’t make a difference how anybody else looks at it.
Tiffany seems to be taking it like that.
So there’s that, and sudden outbursts, and you’ve got a couple of those “signatures”.
(Off the direct subject here, but I think about the movie long enough, think about Jennifer Lawrence’s magical transformation, think about Tiffany, and I actually start tearing up a bit. The pain she went through, but also the beautifully touching hope she has in and for life at the end of this portion of her story.)
Aside from those two behaviors, there’s not really anything that hits you between the eyes about her illness, her challenges, and if someone has no idea of what BPD can entail, they wouldn’t know what the hell to call it.
I’m no trained anything in the field of psychology (they don’t give you a degree for being loopy), but between having watched Liz for all those years and reading about BPD and its effects on the gentlest of souls…
between that and, once again, Jennifer Lawrence there is no other way I can see it.
And, you know, if they actually HAD mentioned it in the film as being her diagnosis as they stated Patty’s was Bi-Polar, a shitload of people might have expected her to take a machete to the entire population of their cozy Philadelphia suburb. That little is generally known about BPD, and it just sounds so ominous.
Honestly, sweetheart, I can’t see there being any triggers in there.
Recognition, sympathy, empathy and a certain voyeuristic sense of looking in a mirror…
maybe.
Spending time with a young woman likely very similar to you…
oh yes.
It should be a textbook, not a romantic dramedy.
You’ll make a friend you wish you could meet.

Meta

Prodigal Orphan

Headed into my 50's figuring I finally had at least almost all the the right answers.
Passed into my 60's realizing I might not have asked the right questions to begin with.
Oh shit ... gotta start all over again.

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